A continuous development of food processing, such as processing of fish products is always on demand with the focus on for instance to increase utilization and value of products as well as meeting demands for quality after processing. When handling a large quantity of fresh food products, speed is of major importance.
Modern large trawlers haul a large amount of fish at a time and it is critical that the freshly caught fish gets quickly processed and/or stored under optimal conditions for further processing at a later time, such as in land.
In many cases the final processing (skinning, filleting, etc.) is done on land, which requires storing the fish at sea and during transport to the factory. In this case the time period from when a caught fish ends up on the deck of fishing ship and to the time the fish starts cooling process needs to be as short as possible as all handling and transport has effect on the quality of the fish.
WO 2014/174535 provides an improved method where whole fish is brought to an under-cooled state by super-chilling before processing. Freshly caught fish is bled and gutted at a workstation and then each fish is individually transported to a screw blade tank filled with sea water to facilitate the bleeding of the fish and to prevent the meet to be coloured by the blood. During transport to the bleeding tank the fish passes image means to determine the size of the fish. In this manner the fish can be directed into three different lanes for rinsing and subsequently cooling to bring the fish to an undercooled state by a stepwise cooling process.
In order to efficiently batch whole fish prior to cooling it for storage until it is processed in factories on land, a large amount of fish needs to be handled in a short time to preserve freshness and quality of the fish. One of the drawbacks of batching fish before it is cooled for storing is the time and manhandling of the fish which can cause damage to the fish, delays cooling and thus reduces its value.